7BSP1205-0901: Business Research Methods- Sustainability Programme to Produce Biogas- Report Writing Assignment

Internal Code: 4BAA

Report Writing Assignment:

Task: Part A The research scenario is that as part of a sustainability programme to produce biogas, a local council is interested in gathering information on householders’ views on recycling food waste. As this is a new initiative, no specific and reliable data is available. You have been given the task to conduct a survey to collect this data (primary data collection) with the help of a questionnaire. You have learned that prior to producing a good quality questionnaire it is important to write a data requirements table (Saunders et al, 2012, p. 425). Please note that you are NOT designing a questionnaire.

• You are expected to write an essay-style piece of work starting with the scenario, justifying the use of survey strategy with questionnaires as data collection tool for the given scenario. Discuss your population and sampling method and justify your decision. Include the purpose of your research. State the type of questionnaire you want to use and justify your choice.
• Justify your wish to produce a data requirements table.
• Then produce and present your data requirements table.
• This should be followed by commentary on and justifications of any choices you have made regarding the information in your table by making good use of/ reference to published sources/ research methods literature and linking it explicitly to the research scenario.
• All choices you make must be justified using Business Research Methods theory.
• Include a list of references formatted in the HBS Harvard Style (See CASE website).
• The word count for Part A should be between 750 - 1000 words (+/- 10%).

Minimal essential reading for Part A is Chapter 11 of Saunders, M. et al (2016) but you are also expected to refer to other chapters as well as read additional other academic sources. Part B Assignment B is about analysing a given set of quantitative data. You are expected to write a well-structured & designed report of between 750 and 1000 words – plus any diagrams and charts you produce and a list of references. It should consist of data analysis, commentary and interpretation and should make good use of published sources to justify your choices. You will need to analyse the quantitative data set using IBM SPSS. The data will be available in the file “hals.sav” in the Ref/Def CW folder under ‘Teaching Resources’ on the module website.